How to back up your Bitcoin wallet in 2022 to ensure the security of your cryptocurrency? Losing access to your cryptocurrency can be bad, especially if you lose it before cashing in and making a lot of money. Fortunately, there are several ways to prevent this from happening. Your wallet contains two important pieces of information - your address and your private key - you need both to access your Bitcoin. This is a bit like username and password, but both are a long string of random characters, so it is unrealistic to simply remember them. On the contrary, if you want to back up your Bitcoin wallet, you need to use a different method.

How to back up the Bitcoin wallet?

Technically, your cryptocurrency is as secure as the blockchain it is in, because that is where all your coins are actually stored. However, your wallet is the only way for you to access these coins, because the money you cannot use is worthless, you need to ensure that you do not accidentally lose this access.

The easiest way to protect yourself from losing access is to back up your wallet. In this way, even if the password is forgotten or the hard disk with the private key is lost, it can still be retrieved.

There are many ways to make wallet backup, each of which has its own advantages and disadvantages. We will focus on three more common methods: generating mnemonics, purchasing offline wallets, and copying your private key.

Back up your private key using a seed phrase

Almost all online wallets have a mnemonic generator that can be quickly and easily backed up. This selects some words - usually 12 out of 2048 words - and uses them to create your private key. Because the specific order of the selected words is unique to your key, you can use this phrase to re-enter your account.

Of course, you still need to find a way to store these words. To do this, you can use encryption software and move it to cloud storage services. However, for users who do not know much about technology, it is OK to write down alternate phrases. However, as with all paper wallets, you need to protect it from damage and theft - for example, putting it in a safe.

How to back up wallet on Electrum

Although not all Bitcoin wallets use mnemonics, many use mnemonics, which is a quick way to protect your Bitcoin wallet. We will show you how to use the popular Electrum Bitcoin wallet to generate this recovery phrase, but many other wallets use similar methods to generate words when you set up a new wallet.

Create a new wallet

To create a wallet with mnemonics, you need to create a new "standard" wallet.

2. Use the seed phrase to set a new wallet

When you see the Keystore page, select Create New Seed.

3. Create a seed phrase

It randomly selects 12 words from the preset list. Write them on paper copies or where you are unlikely to lose or damage them.

4. Re enter the seed phrase

To prove that you have written it correctly, you need to re-enter the word into the box. If you make a mistake, just click "Back" and write down the new word set it generates.

5. Find your seed again

If you lose a mnemonic, Electrum allows you to find it again by clicking "Wallet" and then "Seed".

Backup Bitcoin with Hardware Wallet

Although many people prefer the speed and ease of use of hot wallets, cold wallets are incomparable in terms of protecting your coin security. This is because the cold wallet stores your private key offline, not on your hard disk, or it may be stolen, deleted or otherwise lost.

There are several different types of cold storage. However, for common cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, most people use hardware wallets. These small devices are not very different from standard flash drives, except that they are as secure as possible and only store the public address and private key needed to prove who you are.

Some popular hardware wallet options are the Ledger Nano X and Trezor One. These are two affordable hardware wallets, but others may cost hundreds of dollars - in addition, you will trust it with your money - so you should conduct your own research on each device before purchasing.

Hardware wallets are great, but not the only option. For example, a paper wallet is a simple piece of paper with an address and private key written on it, which can be written down or printed into a two-dimensional code. These are very vulnerable to physical damage and theft, but apart from supporting most currencies, there is no risk of computer or software failure.

However, no matter which cold wallet you choose to use, the most important thing is to ensure its safety. If it is your backup wallet and you lose it, you will have no other way to recover your private key and access your Bitcoin.

The third common way to back up the wallet is simply to back up the wallet file itself. You need cloud storage or online backup services to store these backup files in a secure location. Considering the sensitivity of data, encryption software is also a good choice.

With cloud storage and encryption software, you can create online backup of data. Follow the following four steps to save your wallet to the cloud.

1. Export your private key

In the wallet to be exported, click "Wallet" to open the drop-down menu, select "Private Key", and then select "Export".

Backup Bitcoin Export Private Key

2. Set file path

Select the location where you want to save the private key, and then click Export.

3. Find the wallet backup file

Open Windows File Explorer and go to the directory you selected earlier to find the backup files. You should also consider encrypting this data to improve security before continuing.

4. Move files to a safe place

Whether you are using cloud storage or external drives, just drag and drop files to the desired location to ensure their security, even if your computer is damaged.

In general, whether you like to keep your wallet backup in the cloud or in your pocket, these methods can protect you from most computer failures and malicious software. As long as you have a secure backup, you can continue to use your wallet without worrying about losing your digital currency. However, storing cryptocurrencies is only part of using this new technology.